Monday, May 2, 2016

Tax Evasion Is Both Illegal And Immoral

"Tax evasion is not just illegal it's immoral. People evading tax should be treated same as common thieves."

Why didn't David Cameron know how many houses he owned in 2009, could it be because he knew family investments were sheltered offshore.

This exchange between David Cameron and a Times journalist which took place in 2009 when he was still leader of the opposition is very revealing.

The Times: So how many properties do you own?

DC: I own a house in North Kensington which you’ve been to and my house in the constituency in Oxfordshire and that is, as far as I know, all I have.

The Times: A house in Cornwall?

DC: No, that is, Samantha used to have a timeshare in South Devon but she doesn’t any more.”

The Times: And there isn’t a fourth?

DC: I don’t think so – not that I can think of.

For the man on the Clapham omnibus Cameron's failure to know how many houses he owned would seem somewhat surreal. How is it possible for a man not to know how many homes he has.

One of Cameron's nice little earners.

However it's only thought surreal if you live in the world most of us ordinary folk inhabit. Cameron and his ilk live in a world which is as different to ours as chalk and cheese. For a start we would not be able to claim £1,700 a month, £82,450 in total, in mortgage interest from the taxpayer for a home in Oxfordshire.

When claiming this considerable sum became public knowledge Cameron slithered out a statement which called for the system of MPs' expenses and allowance to be radically reformed. When the excreta hit the fan after the Panama papers were leaked by unknown parties, he boasted his government had done more to stamp out offshore tax dodgers than any government ever.

Never mind in 2013 in a letter to former EU president Herman Van Rompuy Cameron he expressed reservation about extending the regulations designed to reduce secrecy and limit the scope for abuse, to trusts, both those registered offshore and in the UK.

When it comes to sleight of hand Cameron is a past master, making big announcements with lots of rhetoric, with broken promises to follow. A good example of this is while Eton-educated Cameron pocketed an estimated £500,000 in rent during his time in the top job, he refuses to build the necessary number of council and housing association homes for rent. (As a private landlord, a member of the rentier class, who benefits greatly from the housing shortage, Cameron clearly has a conflict of interest when it comes to house building.)

Why didn't Cameron know how many houses he owned in 2009?

The only logical conclusion one can draw is he had no real idea because his offshore investments, then in Panama, soon to be moved to Jersey, were administered by a blind trust. The real owners like Cameron's father hid behind nominees, people with no real control and no assets in the company who simply lend their signature for a back hander or favour, itself a form of corruption surely.

The only role of the beneficiaries since Cameron snr died is to rake in the profits and advantages of Blairmore Holdings Inc, or any other offshore accounts set up in one of the words tax havens like Jersey and other UK protectorates.

As the leaked database of the world’s fourth biggest offshore law firm, Mossack Fonseca shows, the raison d'être of these tax havens is to enable the wealthy to exploit secretive offshore tax regimes without their fingerprints being all over their dodgy dealings for the whole world to see.

As George Osborne tweeted in 2014 "Tax evasion is not just illegal it's immoral. People evading tax should be treated same as common thieves."

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Anthony McIntyre

Former IRA volunteer and ex-prisoner, spent 18 years in Long Kesh, 4 years on the blanket and no-wash/no work protests which led to the hunger strikes of the 80s. Completed PhD at Queens upon release from prison. Left the Republican Movement at the endorsement of the Good Friday Agreement, and went on to become a journalist. Co-founder of The Blanket, an online magazine that critically analyzed the Irish peace process.